Dobbs and North Dakota
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case (hereafter Dobbs) is all over the media – I’m sure you’ve heard and read something about it by now. However, how important is it really? Can it overturn Roe v. Wade? What are the implications for abortions performed in North Dakota? Read on. We will try to present some answers to these questions in the following Q&As.
What is Dobbs about? The Dobbs case arises from a Mississippi law passed in 2018 (House Bill 1510) which prohibited almost all abortions after 15 weeks – 9 weeks earlier than the Supreme Court’s “viability” threshold of 24 weeks previously established in Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Who is Dobbs? Thomas Dobbs is the State Health Officer for Mississippi. In other words, he represents the state’s interests in this case to uphold their 15-week abortion law.
Are there exceptions in the Mississippi law? Yes. The law contains exceptions for medical emergencies and cases involving a “severe fetal abnormality,” however, it does not make exceptions for rape or incest.
Why is this case important? It is fundamentally saying two things. First, that the reasoning in Roe and Casey was flawed and a law based on viability is unsupported. As they state in their case document, “A viability rule has no constitutional basis, it harms state interests, and it produces other severe negative consequences.” Secondly, they make the case that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion or limit States’ authority to restrict it.
Could it result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade and stop all abortions in our country? Not entirely. SCOTUS is not likely to decide that Roe v. Wade was entirely wrong and should be thrown out (see Stare Decisis). It is more likely that their ruling could decide that certain aspects of prior case decisions were incorrect OR that states can restrict abortions at their level OR both. For this reason, all abortions will probably not suddenly stop nation-wide, but they could be dramatically curtailed immediately. It is anticipated that a large amount of litigation would follow such a SCOTUS decision, possibly preventing some state actions going into effect until decided by the court system (i.e., enjoined). Note that 15 states and the District of Columbia already have laws in place that would permit abortions even if Roe were overturned.
So what would happen in North Dakota? Don’t we have a “Trigger Law”?Yes, our state has a trigger law, as do 11 other states. The law (ND Trigger Law) states says that if SCOTUS rules in such a way that our Attorney general determines, “it is reasonably probable that this Act would be upheld as constitutional”, then the trigger law would go into effect and abortions would be illegal in North Dakota. It would make exceptions for protecting the life of the mother or if the pregnancy resulted from “sexual imposition, sexual abuse of a ward, or incest”.
What about all our existing abortion laws? Because we have a trigger law that would ban almost all abortions after Roe, North Dakota’s other, most lesser limitations and regulations on abortions currently in law would no longer be necessary.
When will Dobbs be argued before the Supreme Court and ruled on? The case is being argued tomorrow before the Supreme Court. A ruling is not expected prior to June 2022, when most SCOTUS rulings are filed.
Does this relate to the Texas case I heard about? They are similar in that they limit abortions, but they go about it in very different ways. The Texas law bans abortions as early as 6 weeks and leaves enforcement to private citizens, who can sue doctors or anyone else who performs or directly helps procure an abortion. SCOTUS has not blocked the Texas law for now, but has not heard arguments or officially ruled on it, so its future is unknown. Now Dobbs is taking the spotlight. Many other states are looking into enacting similar laws to the one in Texas, particularly if Dobbs is unsuccessful.
What can we do? Pray, and get others to pray as well! Dobbs is significant in the overall mess the court system has made of the abortion issue and its history of bad decisions. It is fundamentally asking for a rollback of Roe and is the most sweeping piece of legislation SCOTUS has seen in quite a while. We pro-life advocates want to seize this opportunity. The legal case has been submitted, the case argued before SCOTUS tomorrow, so now it’s up to us to pray for a favorable outcome.
Final Note: North Dakota Family Alliance plans to host a roundtable in January on Abortion in North Dakota. We will discuss existing abortion laws, extensively address the Dobbs and Texas cases, and focus on what all this means for North Dakota. Presenters will include policy experts from DC to provide context, legal experts on ND abortion law, individuals involved with of ND pregnancy clinics, and others who can provide a comprehensive perspective on this important case. We will give you more details as we get closer. You won’t want to miss this!
I'm Still Thankful
Tomorrow is already Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if that brings warm feelings or dread of the holiday season, but let’s talk about giving thanks right now.
I am personally thankful for many things. First and foremost, I am thankful for salvation in Christ. I am very thankful for a loving wife, amazing kids, and for living in this wonderful state. I am also thankful for Godly men and women who serve us in the state legislature and Congress. And I am very thankful for you, our faithful ministry partners around the state.
As Americans, we have a lot to be thankful for as well. We live in a country founded on biblical principles, which is a huge blessing. We have religious freedom, a society where hard work produces commensurate rewards, respectful dialog happens around contentious issues, Christianity is respected, and societal norms are shifting more toward biblical values every day.
Really? To some extent all those aforementioned items exist and we should certainly thank God for them. However, they are going away at an ever-increasing rate. The ending to “I am thankful for...” on these issues could soon become moot. They could be gone far faster than you or I can imagine.
I wrote the last four paragraphs in 2019 – two years ago. That was before the fateful Presidential election of 2020, before COVID and vaccine mandates, before riots in our cities, before CRT became an abbreviation we recognize.
Before everything.
So, what now? The assault on all we hold dear has never been greater. Nevertheless, we still have much to be thankful for. We live in a country where freedom is still greater than nearly every other country on earth. We have a definite majority of state legislators who respect biblical values and will defend them. Our country has never been more assertive to reclaim our conservative Christian values, meaning that many have been woken from their comfortable slumber and are now engaging in the fight.
I guess the overriding theme here is to be thankful for what we have. Please continue to pray as we together fight for biblical values in the political arena. Please get involved at the grassroots level – run for that school board position, write that letter to the editor. Finally, please support organizations like ours who are fighting every day, when you simply don’t have the bandwidth to do so.
We will be mailing our year-end donation appeal shortly. Please prayerfully consider giving your tax-exempt gift that will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $20,000 to help us protect our values right here in North Dakota.
I speculated two years ago that our freedoms, ability to express our views, respect for traditional norms that built this country, and other values we hold dear might be entirely gone very soon. Let’s make sure I was wrong.
Why North Dakota?
When I first meet people and they find out our family moved here from another state, the initial question is typically: why North Dakota? I know we North Dakotans are rightfully proud of our state, so it’s not a question of, “why in the world would you choose to live here?” It’s more about curiosity concerning the journey that took us here. And that answer is not a straight line.
My college and university training was in Economics. I had plans to be an economist in the private sector for my entire career, marry this wonderful girl named Ruth, drive a Jaguar, own a beautiful home, work for a Fortune 500 company, and have a perfect little family whose biggest concern was choosing which clubs to belong to. God had other plans, and frankly, I only ever got one of those items I just listed. At least it was the most important one (yes, I’m talking about Ruth).
If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that you have your plans for your life, and God has His plans for your life. If they’re in sync, all is well. If they aren’t, whose plan do you think is going to win? You can go willingly or go after being “whacked in the head”, so to speak, by God, until you come around. I’m Dutch, so I received a lot of whacks before I came around.
I never wanted to work in a nonprofit, certainly never wanted to be part of a “ministry”, didn’t have any interest in fundraising, and didn’t know what policy work was or how to do it. In short, I was definitely not the right person to be where I am today, doing what I am doing. Remember that thing I mentioned about God’s plan?
There have been many twists and turns on our family’s path, as may be true for many of your families as well. We never anticipated them or frankly always wanted them, but they made us stronger, smarter, and most importantly, made us realize that we needed God every step of the way.
During my interview process for this position, Ruth and I scheduled dinner to meet my prospective new boss. He called me up, we decided on a restaurant and time to meet, and then before I had a chance to hang up, he said, “I have one question for you. Why do you want to move to North Dakota?”
I replied, “I never sat down and thought to myself, ‘Wow, I have this great yearning to move to North Dakota.’ But what I have learned over the years is that you go where God calls you. Right now it’s North Dakota, so that’s where I need to be.” In hindsight, I guess that was a sufficient answer, because he hired me.
That answer was actually pretty simple, and it has remained so: “because God wants me here”. Being in God’s plan is not a promise of having an easy life, in fact, it’s quite often the opposite. However, it’s a place of peace. And I wouldn’t trade it for all the Jaguars and fancy homes in the world.
Frankenpod
My tripod broke. I have a DSLR camera and love photography (thanks, Dad), so I’ve had the same tripod for a while – quite a while to be exact. I sort of fell in love with it. It’s very sturdy, full size, has every feature you could ever need, is almost infinitely adjustable, and so on. The problem was that roughly a month ago, a locking mechanism on one of the legs cracked. The result was a leg that was not dependable and a tripod that could not be relied on to support my camera. Thus started my search for a new tripod.
Ebay is the catchall of replacements for everything old. True to its reputation, I found the exact tripod – new in box no less. I ordered it and it arrived on Monday. I opened the box, and that’s when the disappointment began.
One of the legs of the new tripod was cracked in the same place as mine had cracked. Further, the baseplate you mount onto your camera was missing for the new tripod. I had a “new” tripod that had the same problem, and worse.
Never one to give up and undaunted by sketchy fix-it schemes, I came up with a solution. I replaced the cracked leg on the new tripod with a good leg from the old tripod. Second, I removed the whole head assembly on the new tripod and again replaced it with the old assembly that had a workable baseplate. I now have a “Frankenpod”, but it works correctly, albeit a bit worn in some places.
What does this have to do with us or with policy? I find that I often feel like that old tripod – a bit broken and in need of repair. I expect a “silver bullet” to fix all my problems, but it never seems to happen that way. Instead, God takes parts of my life that are old, worn, and just not right for His purposes, and He replaces them with something new. I end up being a mishmash of new and old parts that have seen a lifetime of use, but God knows what He is doing. He’s using a fallen person to fulfill his role/purpose in this life.
This is often also like policy work. We can craft an elegant bill that addresses an urgent need, only to find out that parts are just wrong or have been left out. Then the process of rewriting, amending, problem solving, etc. begins. In the end, we do have a workable bill; in some sense, a “Frankenbill”. However, the final bill we’ve created is far better, stands a higher likelihood of making it into law, and will ultimately serve the people of North Dakota in a superior way over the coming years.
The danger in all this is to hang onto that old tripod or old life or broken bill. It feels comfortable. However, none of them will ultimately serve the purposes for which they were intended, and in fact, may cause significant harm.
It’s hard to let go, no matter how broken something is, but God promises to fix it. Let Him work on the broken pieces, no matter how skeptical you may be. In the end, you may deem it inelegant, but it will ultimately fulfill its purpose. We are all in some way Frankenpods, but that’s OK, as long as we are fulfilling our purpose in God’s grand plan.
We Hadn't Heard About That
I love talking with you, our ministry partners. Whether it is by phone, email, or in person, you give us feedback on what topics matter most to you, what we can do better, and how best to interact with you. Interestingly, in the midst of these conversations, I often hear the same theme: thank you for the information you provide and for keeping us up to date on issues affecting our values, because “We hadn’t heard about that.”
It makes sense. One of the important things we do as NDFA is the education/information component of our work. You need to know about threats (and wins) regarding your values. Perhaps most importantly, you need to know what those who oppose your values are doing quietly and without fanfare. Well, here are three perfect examples that few of you may have heard about.
Do you remember the federal funding that NDSU was receiving and funneling to Planned Parenthood to teach its “Safe Spaces” sex education course to teachers? The legislature last session effectively severed that relationship by putting some of NDSU’s funding at risk if they continued to serve in this capacity. However, Planned Parenthood doesn’t give up so easily. They are now touting the federal grant money they have to do similar work Planned Parenthood Funding. Did you know that?
Whether the money goes through an intermediary organization or not (it’s unclear from their description), they are planning to continue exposing those in our state education system to their “pro-choice” agenda. What worries me even more are two phrases. It states, “provides education to young people’ and then notes that, “All participants 17 and younger must have parent or guardian permission to attend.” While the previous grant was to instruct teachers, is this directly instructing children? What is their plan here? Please watch what happens at the local level as it relates to school curriculum – that is where these decisions will be made.
The second example is associated with the University of North Dakota. Did you know that they have proposed a gender inclusion policy? Interestingly, the link to it has now disappeared from their website. That said, here are some nuggets from the proposed policy we managed to capture before it disappeared.
“Students, employees, and visitors may access restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression and are not required to use UND facilities inconsistent with their gender identity and expression or to use alternative facilities.”
“Students are provided access to housing consistent with their gender identity and expression, as requested, and are not required to stay in single-occupancy accommodations.”
“All recognized student organizations, including fraternities and sororities, must adhere to the University's policies, including nondiscrimination policies.” [This part of the policy then goes on to say that fraternities and sororities are exempt from this policy, with the obvious result that student organizations are not, e.g., Christian organizations.]
In fairness to UND, they did have a comment period and I assume they followed university guidelines on how to announce this. However, it was so under the radar that it was effectively moot, and now the comment period has ended. I can’t tell you how best to give UND your perspective now that the comment period has closed, but making your voice heard in some manner would certainly be advantageous.
Finally, did you know that there is a drag queen show planned for this Saturday in Valley City? In this particular case, we found out about it from one of you, our ministry partners (thank you). Here is the most disturbing part: Valley City State University’s Cultural Diversity Committee and Social Justice Council is helping to support the event. The show promises to, “make people feel good in a way that also informs our community about aspects of the LGBTQ+ culture” VCSU Drag Queen Show. There is even a discount by showing your VCSU ID card. Feel free to let the university know what you think about the event being supported with your taxpayer dollars at VCSU.
There you have three current examples of what is going on between legislative sessions – when all seems quiet. We will continue to provide information like this as we become aware of it, and feel free to contact us if you hear about something that would impact your biblical values or those of your fellow North Dakotans. We can’t catch everything, but with your help, we can perhaps get the word out as soon as possible.
We need to make sure that these types of occurrences come out of the dark and into the light, so all North Dakotans are aware of what is going on. We promise to do our best in this regard, so that you don’t have to tell us, “We hadn’t heard about that.”